Austria’s financial regulator has paved the way for HNA Group’s takeover of an Austrian asset manager, just days after New Zealand’s overseas investment watchdog blocked a similar deal because of the Chinese company’s opaque ownership.
奥地利金融监管机构为海航集团(HNA Group)收购一家奥地利资产管理公司铺平了道路。仅仅数天前,新西兰的海外投资监管机构因为海航所有权不透明而阻止了海航的一笔类似交易。
C-Quadrat – the Austrian firm through which HNA bought a stake in Deutsche Bank – said the Vienna’s Financial Market Authority had “no objections” to the Hainan-based company’s planned majority takeover.
奥地利公司C-Quadrat表示,奥地利金融市场监管局(FMA)“不反对”总部位于海南的海航收购C-Quadrat多数股份的计划。海航曾通过C-Quadrat购入德意志银行(Deutsche Bank)的股份。
“Since the releases of the British Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA) are now available, the transaction is only subject to clearance from the Central Bank of Armenia (CBA),” the company, which has a market cap of 226.88m, said in a filing.
“在英国金融市场行为监管局(FCA)和奥地利金融市场监管局放行之后,现在这笔交易只需要再获得亚美尼亚央行(CBA)的批准,”市值2.2688亿欧元的C-Quadrat在一份文件中表示。
If the additional regulatory hurdle is cleared, HNA will take a 74.8 per cent holding in a third company through London-based Cubic, and Cubic would hold a more than 98 per cent interest in C-Quadrat.
如果成功扫除额外的监管障碍,海航将持有伦敦的第三方公司Cubic的74.8%的股份,而Cubic将持有C-Quadrat逾98%的股份。
The announcement came just after New Zealand’s Overseas Investment Office on Thursday declined HNA’s proposed NZ$660m ($462m) acquisition of UDC Finance, a unit of ANZ Bank, because it could not verify who controlled the airlines-to-finance group.
就在此消息公布前,新西兰海外投资办公室(Overseas Investment Office)在本周四拒绝了海航以6.6亿新西兰元(合4.62亿美元)收购澳新银行(ANZ Bank)旗下UDC Finance的计划,理由是无法核实这家业务涵盖了航空、金融的集团背后的实际控制者。
HNA has grabbed global attention with a buying spree that has seen it snap up multibillion-dollar stakes in Deutsche and Hilton Worldwide, among many other groups. However, questions over its shareholding structure and ultimate owners have dogged the company.
海航的收购狂潮吸引了全球目光,这家公司已抢购了德意志银行(Deutsche Bank)和希尔顿全球(Hilton Worldwide)数十亿美元的股份,以及其他多个集团。然而,围绕其股权结构和最终所有人的问题一直困扰着这家公司。
Earlier in December, a US-based software company filed a complaint with the Supreme Court of the State of New York against HNA over discrepancies among reports of its ownership structure. And in September, Switzerland’s takeover body demanded that HNA clarify its ownership structure after its SFr1.4bn ($1.4bn) buyout of air services company Gategroup.
12月初,一家美国软件公司在纽约州最高法院对海航提起诉讼,指控其所有权结构报告存在不一致。9月份,瑞士并购委员会要求海航澄清其所有权结构,此前海航以14亿瑞士法郎(合14亿美元)收购了航空服务公司佳美集团(Gategroup)。
HNA did not immediately respond to a request for a comment on Friday.
海航没有立即回应周五的置评请求。